At Home: A 19th century mansion beautifully modernised

After 10 years in this house in west London, the owners enlisted the help of designer and architect Rabih Hage to reconfigure the layout and redecorate the rooms to reflect changes in their needs and aesthetic sensibility

When the owners of this grand late-nineteenth-century house, situated in a west London square, moved in some 10 years or so ago, they did little more than give it a decorative overhaul. A decade on and much in their lives had changed. They now have a young child, and the five children from their first marriages have grown up and need more autonomous spaces during their frequent visits home.

Aesthetically, too, they had moved on. It was not just that the house had grown slightly shabby in the intervening years, but the owners wanted a look that was cleaner, less ornate and less decorative. They had heard of the work of architect and interior designer Rabih Hage, and they liked the fact that he combined the two disciplines. As an architect, he could rethink the way the house worked and reconfigure its spaces. As an interior designer, he could give the interiors a classic, timeless feel. The owners were also confident that his contacts with artisans and craftsmen could provide the essential touches of magic.

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For Rabih, it was a wonderful project. The house was one of the few in the square that had not been divided up into flats. It has large, airy rooms, many complete with original cornicing and chimneypieces, which were both challenging and inspiring due to their scale. But it needed a complete rethink to make it work.

They were lucky that, although the house already had a lower ground floor, they were able to get permission to build another floor below that. This meant that in the new basement, Rabih could provide for the family's leisure activities, with a temperature- controlled wine cellar, a gym, a spa area, a bar and a cinema with seating for eight.

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At the front of the house, on the lower ground floor, which has private direct access from the street, Rabih created a self-contained flat with its own small kitchen for the wife's grown-up son. This way he can come and go as he pleases without disturbing the rest of the house. Behind this, there is a room for flower arranging and, at the back, leading out onto the garden, an informal sitting room ideal for watching television, reading and playing games.

Meanwhile, Rabih had decided the ground floor needed to be completely rethought. The clients loved the grandeur of the entrance hall and wanted marble floors, so Rabih tracked some down in a gentle neutral tone, teamed it with a pale linen paper and, as an alternative to traditional crystal chandeliers, chose two large and lovely papier mâché ones by Studio Job for Moooi. 'Though imposing in size, they add a light - and slightly subversive - touch, which does nothing to affect the grandeur, but stops it being too conventionally opulent,' says Rabih.

He also decided to reverse the rooms on the ground floor, moving the kitchen from the back to the front and the dining room to the back. 'I thought it would be much nicer for the kitchen to face south over the square, so I put a small table by the front window where they can have family breakfasts,' he explains. Since the family is quite large and they do a lot of entertaining, there is a small, professionally equipped area at the back of the kitchen where food can be prepared away from the family. An Ingo Maurer gold-leaf ceiling light hangs over the main area for food preparation, behind which is ample storage for all the kitchen paraphernalia.

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The dining room has several functions. It can be a grand setting for entertaining - a quirky light fitting made from metal threads by Terzani hangs over the Victorian table, bought from The Furniture Cave on the King's Road 15 years ago, and there's a made-to-measure Piet Hein Eek sideboard. By the window, there is a smaller table for intimate dinners or tea for two, as well as seating with views out over the garden.

Up on the first floor is the large and beautiful drawing room. Rabih did little to the structure, and focused on repairing the plasterwork and the cornicing, reinstating the dado, smoothing out the walls and putting in an elegant oak floor in a slightly unusual herringbone pattern - the wooden blocks lie at 60 degrees instead of the more usual 45 degrees.

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He kept the colour scheme calm and fairly neutral - with sand-coloured hessian-effect walls hand painted by Matthew Croxford of Croxford and Saunders - not only to provide a tranquil background to the art and artefacts, but also because, as Rabih explains, 'the wife is a sophisticated and elegant woman with a great wardrobe and I wanted her to be able to shine and not be overpowered by too much colour and decoration'.

The room is anchored by two sofas from Poltrona Frau and a bespoke rug by Denis Colomb, which was made in Nepal. The owners already had some beautiful pictures and artefacts - mostly from the husband's time in the Far East - which needed to be properly displayed. Though the first impression is one of great calm and tranquillity, wherever one looks there are visual delights: antique Chinese pots, vintage lights, gold silk curtains, a classic round rosewood table from Denmark, Queen Anne chairs reupholstered in purple velvet, a chandelier by Jeff Zimmerman and a tall spun floor lamp by Anton Alvarez. The neutral background here is perfect for showcasing the artwork - in particular there is Diana/Arethusa Fountain, an arresting large-scale light-box photographic work by Ben Faga, a vertical picture of women's feet by Marilyn Minter and a square white work on paper by Jessica Rankin, while outside on the wall leading up to the second floor is a vast series depicting the Chinese zodiac by Bai Yiluo.

Across the landing, the study has bespoke shelving to display not only the large number of books the couple have collected, but also the Chinese artefacts and Danish blue-and-white porcelain that they own. On the second floor, the husband and wife have a large and airy bedroom, an en suite bathroom and generous dressing areas, as well as a study for the wife. The third floor has three bedrooms, all en suite, one for their young daughter and one for their older daughter, as well as another for guests. Above it all is a vast and gorgeous roof garden with decking, a barbecue and enough space to have a great party.

The result is a house that provides an elegant yet comfortable and practical background to the busy and varied lives of its owners and their large family. As Rabih puts it, 'My work is about resolving the tensions between beauty and comfort.' Here they are resolved quite beautifully.

The back garden has been divided into two sections, one functioning as an outdoor seating area with a contemporary design and the other as a more lush and verdant area. The hard landscaping was carried out by Broseley.

Rabih had the original cornicing and plasterwork in the drawing room restored, and chose gold silk curtains from Jim Thompson to go with the hessian-effect walls hand painted by Matthew Croxford. Two 'Massimosistema' sofas from Poltrona Fraupositioned on either side of the chimneypiece anchor the room.

Rabih kept to a neutral palette in the first-floor drawing room and created focal points with a photograph by Benjamin Faga of the Arethusa Fountain in London's Bushy Park and a brass table by the Haas Brothers.